CHAPTER XXXVIII: OF SOLITARINESSE

ET
us leave apart this outworne comparison, betweene a solitarie and an
active
life: And touching that goodly saying under which ambition and avance
shroud
themselves, that we are not borne for our particular, but for the
publike
good: let us boldly refer ourselves to those that are engaged and let
them
beat their conscience, if on the contrarie the states, the charges, and
this trash of the world are not rather sought and sued for to draw a
private
commoditie from the publike. The bad and indirect meanes whereth rough
in our age men canvase and toyle to attaine the same, doe manifestly
declare
the end thereof to be of no great consequence. Let us answer ambition,
that herselfe gives us the taste of solitarinesse. For what doth she
shun
so much as company? What seeketh shee more than elbow-roome? There
is
no place but there are meanes and waies to doe well or ill.
Neverthelesse
if the saying of Bias be true, 'That the worst part is the greatest:'
Or that which Ecclesiastes saith, 'That of a thousand there
is
not one good:'

1 Good men are rare, so many scarce
(I feare)As gates of Thebes, mouths of rich
Nilus were.

Contagion is very dangerous in
a
throng. A man must imitate the vicious, or hate them: both are
dangerous:
for to resemble them is perilous, because they are many , and to hate
many
is hazardous, because they are dissemblable, and Merchants that travell
by sea have reason to take heed that those which goe in the same ship
be
not dissolute, blasphemers, and wicked, judging such company
unfortunate.
Therefore Bias said pleasantly to those that together with him
passt
the danger of a great storme, and called to the Gods for helpe: 'Peace,
my masters, lest they should heare that you are here with me.' And
of a more militarie example, Albuberque, Viceroy in India
for Emanuel King of Portugall, in an extreme danger of
a
sea-tempest, tooke a young boy upon his shoulders, for this only end,
that
in the common perill his innocence might be his warrant and
recommending
to Gods favour to set him on shore: yet may a wise man live every where
contented, yea and alone, in the throng of a Pallace: but if he may
chuse,
he will (saith he) avoid the sight of it. If need require, he
will
endure the first: but if he may have his choice, he will chuse the
latter.
He thinks he hath not sufficiently rid himselfe from vices if he must
also
contest with other mens faults. Charondas punished those for
wicked
that were convicted to have frequented lewd companies. There is nothing
so dis-sociable and sociable as man, the one for his vice, the other
for
his nature. And I think Antisthenes did not satisfie him that
upbraided
him with his conversation with the wicked, saying, 'That Physicians
live amongst the sicke:' Who if they stead sicke mens healths, they
impaire their owne by the infection, continuall visiting, touching, and
frequenting of diseases. Now (as I suppose) the end is both one,
thereby
to live more at leasure and better at ease. But man doth not alwaies
seeke
the best way to come unto it, who often supposeth to have quit affaires
when he hath but changed them. There is not much lesse vexation in the
government of a private family than in the managing of an entire state:
wheresoever the minde is busied, there it is all. And though
domesticall
occupations be lesse important, they are as importunate. Moreover,
though
we have freed ourselves from the court and from the market, we are not
free from the principall torments of our life.

Why change we soyles warm'd
with
another Sunne?Who from home banisht hath
himselfe
outrunne?

If a man
doe
not first discharge both himselfe and his minde from the burthen that
presseth
her, removing from place to place will stirre and presse her the more,
I as in a ship, wares well stowed and closely piled take up least
roome,
you doe a sicke-man more hurt than good to make him change place, you
settle
an evill in removing the same; as stakes or poles, the more they are
stirred
and shaken, the faster they sticke, and sinke deeper into the ground.
Therefore
is it not enough for a man to have sequestered himselfe from the
concourse
of people: is it not sufficient to shift place, a man must also sever
himselfe
from the popular conditions that are in us. A man must sequester and
recover
himselfe from himselfe.

Unlesse our breast be purg'd,
what
warres must weeWhat perils then, though much
displeased,
see?How great teares, how great
cares
of sharpe desireDoe carefull man distract,
torment,
enfire?Uncleannesse, wantonnesse,
sloth,
riot, pride,How great calamities have these
implide?

Therefore must
it
be reduced and brought into it selfe: It is the true solitarinesse, and
which may be enjoyed even in the frequencie of peopled Cities and Kings
courts; but it is more commodiously enjoyed apart. Now sithence
wee
undertake to live solitarie, and without companie, let us cause our
contentment
to depend of our selves: Let us shake off all bonds that tie us unto
others:
Gaine we that victorie over us, that in good earnest we may live
solitarie,
and therein live at our ease. Stilphon having escaped the
combustion
of his Citie, wherein he had lost both wife and children, and all his
goods; Demetrius
Poliorcetes seeing him in so great a ruine of his Countrie with an
unaffrighted countenance, demanded of him, whether he had received any
losse: He answered, No: and that (thanks given to God) he had lost
nothing
of his owne. It is that which Antisthenes the Philosopher
said
very pleasantly, 'That man ought to provide himselfe with munitions
that might float upon the water, and by swimming escape the danger of
shipwracke
with him.' Verily, 'a man of understanding hath lost nothing if he yet
have himselfe.' When the Citie of Nola was over-run by the
Barbarians,
Paulinus, bishop thereof, having lost all he had there, and being their
prisoner, prayed thus unto God: 'O Lord, deliver me from feeling of
this
losse: for thou knowest as yet they have toucht nothing that is mine.'
The riches that made him rich, and the goods which made him good, were
yet absolutely whole. Behold what it is to chuse treasures well, that
may
be freed from injurie; and to hide them in a place where no man may
enter,
and which cannot be betraied but by our selves. A man that is able may
have wives, children, goods, and chiefly health, but not so tie
himselfe
unto them that his felicitie depend on them. We should reserve a
store-house
for our selves, what need soever change; altogether ours, and wholly
free,
wherein we may hoard up and establish our true libertie, and principall
retreit and solitarinesse, wherein we must go alone to our selves, take
out ordinarie entertainment, and so privateIy that no acquai ntance or
communication of any strange thing may therein find place: there to
discourse,
to meditate and laugh, as, without wife, without children, and goods,
without
traine or servants; that if by any occasion they be lost, it seeme not
strange to us to passe it over; we have a minde moving and turning in
it
selfe; it may keep it selfe companie; it hath wherewith to offend and
defend,
wherewith to receive, and wherewith to give. Let us not feare that we
shall
faint and droop through tedious and mind-trying idlenesse in this
solitarinesse.

In solis sis tibi
turba
locis.

Be thou, when with thee is
not any,As good unto thy selfe as many.

Vertue is contented with it selfe,
without
discipline, without words, and without effects. In our accustomed
actions,
of a thousand there is not one found that regards us: he whom thou
seest
so furiously, and as it were besides himselfe, to clamber or crawle up
the citie wals or breach, as a point-blank to a whole voly of shot, and
another all wounded and skarred, crazed and faint, and wel-nie
hunger-starven,
resolved rather to die than to open his enemie the gate and give him
entrance;
doest thou think he is there for himselfe? No verily. It is
peradventure
for such a one whom neither he nor so many of his fellowes ever saw,
and
who haply takes no care at all for them; but is therewhilst wallowing
up
to the ears in sensualitie, slouth, and all manner of carnal delights .
This man, whom about mid-night, when others take their rest, thou seest
come out of his study, meagre looking, with eyes trilling, flegmatick,
squalide, and spauling, doest thou thinke that plodding on his books
doth
seek how he shall become an honester man, or more wise, or more
content?
There is no such matter. He wil either die in his pursuit, or teach
posteritie
the measure of Plautus verses and the true orthography of a
Latine
word. Who doth not willingly chop and counterchange his health, his
ease,
yea and his life, for glorie and for reputation? The most unprofitable,
vaine, and counterfet coine, that is in use with us. Our death is not
sufficient
to make us afraid; let us also charge ourselves with that of our wives,
of our children, and of our friends and people. Our owne affaires doe
not
sufficiently trouble and vexe us: Let us also drudge, toile, vex, and
torment
ourselves with our neighbours and friends matters.Vah quemquamne hominem in animum
instituere, aut

Fie, that a man should cast,
that
ought, than heHimselfe of himselfe more
belov'd
should be.

Solitarinesse,
mee
seemeth, hath more apparence and reason in those which have given their
most active and flourishing age into the world, in imitation of of Thales.
We have lived long enough for others, live we the remainder of our life
unto our selves: let us bring home our cogitations and inventions unto
our selves and unto our ease. It is no easie matter to make a safe
retreit:
it doth over-much trouble us with joyning other enterprises unto it;
since
God gives us leasure to dispose of our dislodging. Let us prepare
ourselves
unto it, packe wee up our baggage. Let us betimes bid our companie
farewell.
Shake we off these violent holdfasts which else-where engage us, and
estrange
us from our selves. These so strong bonds must be untied, and a man
must
eft-soones love this or that, but wed nothing but himselfe; That is to
say, let the rest be our owne: yet not so combined and glued together
that
it may not be sundred without fleaing us, and therewithall pull away
some
peece of our owne. The greatest thing of the world is for a man to know
how to be his owne. It is high time to shake off societie, since we can
bring nothing to it. And he that cannot lend, let him take heed of
borrowing.
Our forces faile us: retire we them, and shut them up into our selves.
He that can suppresse and confound in himselfe the offices of so many
amities,
and of the company, let him doe it. In this fall which makes us
inutile,
irkesome, and importunate to others, let him take heed he be not
importunate,
irkesome, and unprofitable to himselfe. Let him flatter court, and
cherish
himselfe, and above all let him governe him selfe, respecting his
reason
and fearing his conscience, so that he may not without shame stumble or
trip in their presence. Rarum est enim, ut satis se quisque
vereatur:
'For it is a rare matter that every man sufficiently should stand in
awe
and reverence of himselfe.' Socrates saith, 'That young men
ought
to be instructed, and men exercised in well doing; and old men withdraw
themselves from all civill and military negotiations, living at their
owne
discretion, without obligation to any certaine office.' There are
some
complexions more proper for these precepts of retreit than orhers.
Those
which have a tender and demisse apprehension, a squemish affection, a
delicate
will, and which cannot easily subject or imploy it selfe (of which both
by naturall condition and propense discourse I am one) wil better apply
themselves unto this counsell than active minds and busie spirits;
which
imbrace all, ever where engage, and in all things passionate
themselves,
that offer, that present and yeeld themselves to all occasions. A man
must
make use of all these accidentall commodities, and which are without
us,
so long as they be pleasing to us; but not make them our principall
foundation:
It is not so; nor reason, nor nature permit it. Why should we against
their
lawes subject our contentment to the power of others? Moreover, to
anticipate
the accidents of fortune, for a man to deprive himselfe of the
commodities
he hath in possession, as many have done for devotion, and some
Philosophers
by discourse; to serve themselves, to lie upon the hard ground, to pull
out their own eyes, to cast their riches into the sea, to seeke for
paine
and smart (some by tormenting this life for the happinesse of another;
othersome placing themselves on the lowest step, thereby to warrant
themselves
from a new fall) is the action of an excessive vertue. Let sterner and
more vigorous complexions make their lurking glorious and exemplar.

When riches faile, I praise
the safe
estate,Though small; base things do not
high thoughts abate.But when tis better, finer with
me, IThey only live well, and are
wise,
doe crie,Whose corne in faire farmes doth
well-grounded lie.

There is worke
enough
for me to doe without going so far. It sufficeth me, under fortunes
favour,
to prepare my selfe for her disfavour; and being at ease, as far as
imagination
may attaine unto, so represent the evill to come unto my selfe: Even as
we enure our selves to Tilts and Tourneyes, and counterfeit warre in
time
of peace. I esteeme not Arcesilaus the Philosopher lesse
reformed
because I know him to have used household implements of gold and
silver,
according as the condition of his fortune gave him leave. I rather
value
him the more than if he had not done it, forsomuch as he both
moderately
and liberally made use of them. I know unto what limits naturall
necessitie
goeth; and I consider a poore almesman begging at my doore to be often
more plump-cheekt, in better health and liking, than I am: Then doe I
enter
into his estate, and essay to frame and sute my mind unto his byase.
And
so over-running other examples, albeit I imagine death, povertie,
contempt,
and sicknesse to be at my heeles, I easily resolve my selfe not to
apprehend
any feare of that which one of lesse worth than my selfe doth tolerate
and undergoe with such patience: And I cannot beleeve that the
basenesse
or shallownesse of understanding can doe more than vigor and
far-seeing,
or that the effects and reason of discretion cannot reach to the
effects
of custome and use. And knowing what slender hold-fast these accessorie
commodities have, I omit not in full jovyssance of them, humbly to
beseech
God of his mercie (as a soveraigne request) to make me contented with
my
selfe, and with the goods proceeding from me. I see some
gallantly-disposed
young men, who notwithstanding their faire-seeming shew, have boxes
full
of pils in their coffers at home, to take when the rhume shall assaile
them; which so much the lesse the feare, when they thinke the remedy to
be at hand. So must a man doe: as also if he feele himselfe subject to
some greater infirmitie, to store himselfe with medicaments that may
asswage,
supple, and stupifie the part grieved. The occupation a man should
chuse
for such a life must neither be painfull nor tedious, otherwise in
vaine
should we accompt to have sought our abiding there, which depends from
the particular taste of every man. Mine doth no way accommodate itselfe
to husbandrie. Those that love it, must with moderation apply
themselves
unto it.

Conentur sibi res,
non
se submittere rebus. -- Epist. i. 19.

Endevour they things to them
to submit,Not them to things (if they have
Horace wit)

Husbandrie is
otherwise
a servile office, as Salust termeth it: It hath more excusable
parts,
as the care of gardening, which Xenophon ascribeth to Cyrus:
A meane or mediocritie may be found betweene this base and vile carking
care, extended and full of toiling labor, which we see in men that
wholly
plunge themselves therein, and that profound and extreme retchlesnesse
to let all things goe at six and seven, which is seen in others.

But let us
heare
the counsell which Plinie the younger giveth to his friend
Cornelius
Rufus, touching this point of Solitarinesse: 'I perswade thee
in
this full-gorged and fat retreit wherein thou art, to remit this base
and
abject care of husbandrie unto thy servants, and give thy selfe to the
study of letters, whence thou maist gather something that may
altogether
be thine owne.' He meaneth reputation: like unto Ciceroes
humor,
who saith, That he will imploy his solitarinesse and residence from
publike affaires to purchase unto himselfe by his writings an immortall
life.

Unlesse what thou doest know, thou
others
show? It seemth to be reason, when a man speaketh to withdraw himselfe
from the world, that one should looke beyond him. These doe it but by
halfes.
Indeed they set their match against the time they shall be no more; but
pretend to reap the fruit of their dessignes, when they shall be absent
from the world, by a ridiculous contradiction. The imagination of those
who through devotion seeke solitarinesse, filling their minds with the
certaintie of heavenly promises, in the other life, is much more
soundly
consorted. They propose God as an object infinit in goodnesse and
incomprehensible
in power, unto themselves. The soule hath therein, in all free
libertie,
wherewith to glut her selfe. Afflictions and sorrowes redound to their
profit, being imployed for the purchase and attaining of health and
eternall
gladnesse. Death, according to ones wish, is a passage to so perfect an
estate. The sharpnesse of their rules is presently made smooth and
easie
by custome; and carnall concupiscences rejected, abated, and lulled
asleep
by refusing them: for nothing entertaineth them but use and exercise. This
only end of another life, blessedly immortall, doth rightly merit we
should
abandon the pleasures and commodities of this our life. And he that can
enlighten his soule with the flame of a lively faith and hope, really
and
constantly, in his solitarinesse doth build unto himselfe a voluptuous
and delicious life, far surmounting all other lives. Therefore
doth
neither the end nor middle of this counsell please me. We are ever
falling
into a relaps from an ague to a burning fever. This plodding occupation
of bookes is as painfull as any other, and as great an enemie unto
health,
which ought principally to be considered. And a man should not suffer
himselfe
to be inveagled by the pleasure he takes in them: It is the same
pleasure
that loseth the thriving husband-man, the greedy-covetous, the
sinning-voluptuous,
and the puft-up ambitious. The wisest men teach us sufficiently to
beware
and shield us from the treasons of our appetites, and to discerne true
and perfect pleasures from delights blended and entermingled with more
paine. For most pleasures (say they) tickle, fawne upon, and embrace
us,
with purpose to strangle us, as did the theeves whom the Egyptians
termed Philistas:
And if the head-ach would seize upon us before drunkennesse, we would
then
beware of too much drinking: but sensualitie, the better to entrap us,
marcheth before, and hideth her tracke from us. Bookes are delightfull,
but if by continuall frequenting them, we in the end lose both health
and
cheerefulnesse (our best parts) let us leave them. I am one of those
who
thinke their fruit can no way countervaile this losse. As men that have
long time felt themselves enfeebled through some indisposition, doe in
the end yeeld to the mercie of Physicke, and by art have certaine rules
of life prescribed them, which they will not transgresse: So he that
with-drawes
himselfe, as digested and over-tired with the common life, ought
likewise
to frame and prescribe this unto the rules of reason; direct and range
the same by premeditation and discourse. He must bid all manner of
travell
farewell, what shew soever it beare; and in generall shun all passions
that any way empeach the tranquillitie of mind and body, and follow the
course best agreeing with his humour.

Vnusquisque sua
noverit
ire via. -- Propert. ii. El. xxv. 38.

His owne way every manTread-out directly can.

A man must give
to
thriving husbandrie, to laborious study, to toilesome hunting, and to
every
other exercise, the utmost bounds of pleasure; and beware he engage
himselfe
no further, if once paine begin to intermeddle it selfe with her; we
should
reserve businesse and negotiations only for so much as is behoovefull
to
keepe us in breath, and to warrant us from the inconveniences which the
other extremitie of a base, faint-harted idlenesse drawes after it.
There
are certaine barren and thornie sciences, which for the most part are
forged
for the multitude: they should be left for those who are for the
service
of the world. As for my selfe, I love no books but such as are pleasant
and easie, and which tickle me, or such as comfort and counsell me, to
direct my life and death.

Silently creeping midst the
wholesome
woodWith care what's for a wise man
and a good.

The wiser sort
of
men, having a strong and vigorous mind, may frame unto themselves an
altogether
spirituall life. But mine being common, I must help to uphold my selfe
by corporall commodities: And age having eftsoones dispoiled me of
those
that were most mutable to my fantasia, I instruct and sharpen my
appetite
to those remaining most sortable this other season. We must tooth and
naile
retaine the use of this lives pleasures, which our yeares snatch from
us
one after another:

Plucke we sweet pleasures: we
thy
life give thee.Thou shalt a tale, a ghost, and
ashes be.

Now concerning
the
end of glorie, which Plinie and Cicero propose unto us,
it
is far from my discourse: The most opposite humour to solitarie
retiring
is ambition. 'Glorie and rest are things that cannot squat in one
same
forme:' as far as I see, these have nought but their armes and
legs
out of the throng, their mind and intent is further and more engaged in
them than ever it was.

They have gone
backe
that they might leap the better, and with a stronger motion make a
nimbler
offer amidst the multitude. Will you see how they shoot-short by a
cornes
breadth? let us but counterpoise the advice of two Philosophers, and of
two most different sects: The one writing to Idomeneus, the
other
to Lucilius, their friends, to divert them from the managing of
affaires and greatnesse unto a solitarie kind of life. 'You have,' say
they, 'lived hitherto swimming and floating adrift, come and die in
the haven; you have given the past of your life unto light, give the
remainder
unto darknesse.' It is impossible to give over occupations if you
doe
not also give over the fruits of them: Therefore cleare your selfe from
all care and glorie. There is great danger lest the glittering of your
forepassed actions should over much dazle you, yea, and follow you even
to your den. Together with other concupiscences, shake off that which
commeth
from the approbation of others. And touching your knowledge and
sufficiencie,
take you no care of them, they will lose no whit of their effect; if
your
selfe be anything the better for them. Remember but him, who being
demanded
to what purpose he toyled so much about an art, which could by no
meanes
come to the knowledge of many: 'Few are enow for me; one will
suffice,
yea, lesse than one will content me,' answered he. He said true:
you
and another are a sufficient theatre one for another; or you to your
selfe
alone. Let the people be one unto you, and one be all the people to
you:
it is a base ambition to goe about to draw glorie from ones idlenesse
and
from ones lurking hole. A man must doe as some wilde beasts, which at
the
entrance of their caves will have no manner of footing seene. You
must no longer seeke what the world saith of you, but how you must
speake
unto your selfe: withdraw your selfe into your selfe; but first prepare
your selfe to receive your selfe: it were folly to trust to your selfe
if you cannot governe your selfe. A man may as well faile in
solitariness
as in companie, there are waies for it, untill such time as you have
framed
your selfe, such that you dare not halt before your selfe, and that you
shall be ashamed of and beare a kind of respect unto your selfe, Obversentur
species honestæ animo: 'Let honest Ideæs still
represent
themselves before your mind:'2 Ever present Cato, Phocion,
and Aristides
unto your imagination in whose presence even fooles would hide their
faults,
and establish them as controulers of all your intentions. If they be
disordered
and untuned, their reverence will order and tune them againe: they will
containe you in a way to be contented with your selfe; to borrow
nothing
but from your selfe, to settle and stay your mind in assured and
limited
cogitations, wherein it may best please it selfe, and having gotten
knowledge
of true felicities, which according to the measure a man understands
them,
he shall accordingly injoy, and with them rest satisfied, without
wishing
a further continuance either of life or name. Loe heere the counsell of
truly-pure and purely-true philosophie not of a vaine-glorious,
boasting,
and prating philosophie, as is that of the two first.